I don't know if you can see him, but our elf, named George Gideon (Miles wanted George, Ava wanted Gideon), is on the 'shelf'. He actually came out a bit early this year. Ava was displaying a little attitude, so I told her that Santa was sending an elf to watch her and her brother. She basically rolled her eyes at me. But the next morning when George Gideon showed up complete with a 'note' from Santa, that all changed. I thought it was a creepy tradition, but they love it!
The kids had a great time decorating the tree. And we only broke about 4 ornaments doing it! Yay!
Our Tree.
George Gideon.
I'm not real sure where Ava got her desire to cook. I know it wasn't from me or my Mom! She is very into making recipes. Her favorite? Strawberry Lemonade Soup. ???
We realized that we didn't have an actual gingerbread cookie cutter to make gingerbread cookies. We used some others, but the gingerbread was too soft. So we improvised and decided to make one big gingerbread girl, complete with bow. It was a great idea....
....Until she started baking. We named her Big Bertha. She was quite yummy!
Miles threw a fit after we put the tree up in the living room to sleep with the tree. So naturally, we do ANYTHING to make sure that we all get sleep around here....we got them a tree for their room. It is working so far, but we don't want to jinx ourselves.
Our precious little grinches watching An Elf Story. They are at such a fun age right now!
Our little pilgrim at her school Thanksgiving performance. The younger kids went to serenade the older grades. Too cute!
Thanksgiving and I didn't get one picture of the food, tables, family, etc... But I did manage to get a rare shot of the 6 (actually 7) grandkids together!
What do you think? Diaper is NOT on...perhaps hanging down one leg? That's what I think. I was honestly afraid to find out what was in there.
No naps for the kiddos on Thanksgiving, but LOTS of playing & rough-housing. The kids (and parents) were spent. This is Miles at around 7pm after trying to eat dinner.
This is him 5 minutes later.
Ava's fourth birthday party! She had a combined family and friends party. She invited friends from school, dance and the neighborhood, as well as her cousins and we think everyone had a wonderful time!
We had the Build-a-Pal bus come and each child got to pick an animal and stuff it and dress it. Lori, from Build-a-Pal was so great! She had a huge assortment of animals and clothing to choose from. Each child was able to customize their own and take it home.
It was a bit chaotic, but I managed to enjoy myself too!
This kind of entertainment is every child's favorite....and it's totally free! Ha!
Ava designed the cake (after looking at about a million online!) and it turned out beautiful!
The Build-a-Pal bus.
Inside the bus.
Waiting in line to stuff their animal.
Ava getting some help putting her outfit on her animal. ALL pink of course!
King David, one of Ava's best buddies from school, getting his dinosaur stuffed.
Her friend, Princess Amelie, with her sister Princess Heloise, getting their animals stuffed.
Our little Princess with her cake and invitation. (she refused to wear anything in her hair the one day she will have like 600 pictures made. Ugh)
This was like herding cats. We tried SO hard to get the kids pictures in front of the bus with their animals, but to no avail.
The weather was nice, cloudy, but around 65-70 degrees. Crazy weather for the end of November! So the kids (and all the ice cream and pink icing) ate outside. :-)
Ava's cousin, Olivia with David's little brother, Daniel (aka King Solomon).
Ava waiting excitedly to open her first gift. She has seen it around the house and wanted to open it.
So excited!!! She has been asking for "a ring like Mommy's, but silver with pink. Not one of those that is broken on the silver part" (not an adjustable one) So, thank you Amazon.com for helping me find exactly what she wanted in a size 1.5!
Opening gifts very daintily with her new ring on.
Best shot I could get.
The playroom is always a hit at parties! Not quite as much of a hit to clean up however!
Brad building Ava's new big girl bed! She is so excited. Next, he is going to build Miles a half-pipe bed. He is so excited (Miles, not Brad)!
We started listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween. Ava is completely obsessed with "Feed the World (let them know it's Christmastime)". She heard Africa in the song (she can recite her continents) and wanted to know why they were saying a prayer for the kids in Africa. I explained the meaning of the song to her and she was quiet for a long time, but then went back to singing. That night, when we got home, I was in the office and she came in carrying a box of cereal, some oatmeal, pop tarts, etc. Her arms were FULL! I asked her what she thought she was doing and she replied, "We have to go walk down that street in Africa and give this food to those children Mom, they are starving to death!" I told her that Africa was very far away and that it was over the ocean and it would take us a very long time to get there. Her reply? "Well then, we better hurry up. Let's go." She had to settle for me 'mailing it to Africa' for her. God love her! What a sweet heart.
We were shopping recently for stools for the new art table Brad built the kids and Ava discovered this pink chair. She wasn't going to take no for an answer. SHE WANTED THAT CHAIR. She was quite persistent, but I am pleased to say that this time, I did NOT cave in and buy that chair. (Confession: we really don't have room for it or I would have)
Ava working in the computer lab at school. Her teacher said that she is very good with a mouse. I'm not sure how that happened as she is NOT supposed to use the mouse in our office. Hmmmmm.....
Ava started at a new dance school and she can wear PINK leotards now. She is in heaven. She is learning so much and was showing me what they practiced at dance. She LOVES Angelina Ballerina and wants to be just like her.
She was so proud of herself writing her ABC's for me. I thought it was cool that she wrote them all in order, but made each one a different color!
The dress-up bureau? that Brad made for Ava. There is a place over on the left for wings and wands, lift up storage on the top for jewelry, a trough below for tutu's, etc. and 6 bins for crowns, shoes, gloves, etc...... That man can make anything!
Ava with Ethan (the one she currently wants to marry) at his birthday party. His Mom had a "monster truck" there and all the kids had a blast!
Miles is completely obsessed with choo choo trains! I always have a terrible time getting him out of Barnes and Noble. Sooooo, We have conferred with Santa and he is going to rock Miles' world Christmas morning! We are so incredibly proud of Miles! He has officially been Popper-Free (Pacifier-Free) for almost 2 months! He is talking a LOT more. AND he has been pee-peeing in the potty. One attempt at poo poo in the potty didn't go so well, so we will wait a little bit before we try that again. We did try wearing big boy underwear at home (once). He just pee'd in them and kept going. Apparently he isn't quite ready for that either. Boo.
Ava's birthday party at school! She got to be the line-leader (a big deal in Pre-K3) all day and wear her crown all day long.
I know it's crazy, but Ava just got her first haircut 3 days before her 4th birthday. I was getting my hair cut and she decided (finally) that she wanted hers cut too. She actually asked Samantha to cut it at her shoulders, but since I won't be able to put that back on for her once she wants it back on, we went with a trim.
SO proud of herself.
Our cousins, Amber and Andrew got Miles a Rody for his 2nd birthday. They brought it down when they came for Ava's birthday and he LOVES it! As you can see, that night he never let the darn thing go.....And he slept with it. It was a bit too Godfather for me, watching my son sleep with a horses head next to him, but I pick my battles very carefully.
God love him!!!
Olivia loves Brad. When they got down here that day, she stayed on Brad's lap/shoulder for a good hour. He just has this calming effect with kids. She is so stinkin cute!
Ava was off the week of Thanksgiving and so was Brad, so Brad was busy building things in the garage and Ava wanted to paint. He had loud saws going, so Ava had to wear her hearing protection. These are the pictures he sent me while I was at work. My little artist.
This is what he was busy building that day. I wanted an art desk for the kids, but I didn't want something that would take up a lot of room. He came up with the idea of a "murphy-type" desk and put a non-glass mirror under it so that when on the wall, it looks like a framed mirror. Genius!
Miles admiring himself in the mirror! I could just eat him up!
Ava in one of her dress-up dresses she got for her birthday. She has turned into such a girlie-girl. A far cry from the little 2 year old that wore jeans most of the time and was into dragons, dinosaurs and monsters.
Miles and Ava always yell at intersections "Green, Mommy GO" or "Red, Mommy Stop" or "Yellow, Mommy Slow Down". She went to the playroom the other day and drew this and brought it to me. She didn't have anything but memory to create it. I was impressed to say the least.
This post felt a little "Ava heavy". She had a lot going on this last couple of weeks. I promise, Miles was not at all neglected in the past couple of weeks! LOL.
This post felt a little "Ava heavy". She had a lot going on this last couple of weeks. I promise, Miles was not at all neglected in the past couple of weeks! LOL.
